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Adams Doesn’t Get Enough Help from Friends vs. Vikings

“It’s not a bad question, but it’s not one I can answer,” Aaron Rodgers said of getting help at the trade deadline.
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GREEN BAY, Wis. – Davante Adams is one of the best receivers in the NFL. But not even No. 17 can do it alone.

Two days ahead of Tuesday’s trade deadline, that point was made obvious in the Green Bay Packers’ 28-22 loss to the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday. While Adams scored three touchdowns on Sunday, the Vikings otherwise kept him under wraps. He caught 7-of-12 targets for just 53 yards. His 4.42 yards per target was his 10th-lowest figure in the 62 regular-season games played since the start of the 2016 season. While that number is skewed a bit by touchdown catches measuring 5, 1 and 7 yards, he didn’t have a single play of longer than 15 yards against a beat-up secondary.

“They didn’t want to leave Davante one-on-one,” quarterback Aaron Rodgers said. “I think the one time they did, I threw a touchdown the first drive of the game — and that was about it. I thought we ran the ball pretty well, but their whole plan seemed to be to make us go the distance – and we had a couple drives there in the third quarter that we didn’t.”

With the Vikings limiting Adams – an odd sentence to write about a player who set a career high for touchdown receptions – the Packers badly needed someone to step to the forefront. It didn’t happen often enough.

Jamaal Williams caught six passes for a feeble 27 yards. Robert Tonyan caught five passes for 79 yards, with 45 of those yards coming on a superb downfield catch. Jace Sternberger caught three passes for 46 yards, including a 13-yard catch on a fourth-and-1 on the opening drive. Malik Taylor’s only catch, for 26 yards, converted a third-and-10. Marquez Valdes-Scantling’s only catch, for 19 yards, converted a third-and-5.

Contrast that to the Week 1 in Minnesota. While Adams caught 14-of-17 passes for 156 yards and two touchdowns, Valdes-Scantling caught four passes for 96 yards and one touchdown, Allen Lazard caught four passes for 63 yards and one touchdown, and Aaron Jones had 66 rushing yards and one touchdown.

In Minnesota, Valdes-Scantling and Lazard contributed eight receptions for 159 yards and two scores in a supporting role. In Green Bay, every receiver not named Adams combined for four receptions for 63 receptions.

Rodgers took the high road when asked about the upcoming trade deadline.

“It’s not a bad question, but it’s not one I can answer,” Rodgers said. “We’ve had many conversations about this type of thing over the years. I truly understand my role. I’m not going to stump for anybody. Last time I stumped for a player [Jake Kumerow], he ended up going to Buffalo.”

With limited salary-cap space, any improvement might have to come from within the roster. LaFleur, as he’s typically done, pointed the finger at himself first and the need get more out of the complementary players around Adams.

Lazard should be back in another week or two following core-muscle surgery and Jones might be back in time for Thursday’s game against the 49ers. Getting those key players should provide a big lift.

“We’re a better team when we’re at full strength, and having 33 and 13 back would be big jumps,” Rodgers said.

Without an abundance of firepower, the Packers have little margin for error on offense. That bit them on Sunday. Guilty of five offensive holding penalties all season, the Packers were guilty of five against the Vikings – including two each by steady pros Elgton Jenkins and Marcedes Lewis.

They’re not good to overcome missed opportunities, either. Trailing 21-14 in the third quarter, the Packers overcame a holding penalty on Lewis. On first down from the Vikings’ 37, Tyler Ervin dropped a jet-sweep flip from Rodgers. On third-and-10, Equanimeous St. Brown couldn’t make a difficult catch. Minnesota got the defensive stop and scored again to go up 28-14. On the ensuing possession, Rodgers overthrew Sternberger for what should have been a big gain.

“Yeah, I think there is never much margin for error in this league, period,” LaFleur said. “When you set yourself back and you have too many penalties, I think we almost had 100 yards in penalties. There were a lot of penalties today that ultimately cost us points on offense and on defense, and we've got to take a good, hard look at it and learn from them and see what we can do better. Maybe it’s coaching certain techniques better, whatever it might be. But we cannot put ourselves in those positions, because if you do, this is what happens. You get beat, and that's what happened today.”

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